Antonio Rudiger has been ranking some of the greatest players in Real Madrid history.
The German was asked, by Goal, to rank some of the best players to ever pull on a white shirt, and in doing so, he made a very interesting claim about Mesut Ozil.
Ozil was undoubtedly one of the best players in the world in his pomp at Real Madrid and Arsenal, and while his career at the Emirates ended under a dark cloud, he’s still a legendary figure within football.
The one-time £42m Arsenal signing was incredible in his day, and while he faded too early, his peak was utterly brilliant.
Rudiger ranked Ozil fourth in the list of players he was asked to rank, intriguingly, putting him ahead of David Beckham.
Now this is a debate that is very interesting to sink your teeth into.
These are two players whose careers kind of reverse mirror each other.
Ozil did most of his best work in the Premier League before showing fleeting brilliance at Real Madrid, while Beckham was truly world-class at Manchester United before fading a bit in Spain.
In terms of Premier League legacy, Beckham wipes the floor with Ozil, but the German was better at Real Madrid, and he also won the World Cup.
However, Beckham was a part of a treble-winning Manchester United team, and he also finished second in the Ballon d’Or voting back in 1999.
Ozil never got that close to the Ballon d’Or, but at the same time, he was playing in the Lionel Messi/Cristiano Ronaldo era, so it’s hard to really blame him.
In Rudiger’s view, Ozil is the better player, and that may be a bit of German bias playing into the fact that Ozil was incredible for the national team.
In our view, this is a very close argument, and there are cases to make for both players.
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